The Archive
The town was bought by a banker. The studio is named for what he built to hold things.
In 1868, a Des Moines banker named Benjamin Franklin Allen — Iowa's first millionaire — bought the land that would become Earlham for twenty dollars an acre. In the words of the account, “it was understood that he intended to make a town of it.” Six years later his bank collapsed. In 1884 he lost Terrace Hill, the mansion he had built in Des Moines for a quarter of a million dollars, for sixty thousand.
- 1866
Allen begins Terrace Hill in Des Moines. Hot and cold running water, gas lights, an elevator. Architect William W. Boyington.
- 1868
Allen buys the Earlham townsite from David Hockett, the settler who had already deeded ground to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. The railroad's engineer runs the survey.
- 1869
Housewarming at Terrace Hill for seven hundred guests. Within five months Earlham has thirty-five buildings, “many of which are first class for a country village.”
- 1875
Allen's Chicago bank collapses. Railroad trust funds, overextension.
- 1884
Terrace Hill passes to Frederick M. Hubbell for $60,000, against the $250,000 spent building it.
- 1900
The Bricker-Price Block is built at 105 S. Chestnut. Storm-damaged in 2015, saved by the town, standing today.
- 1910
Clyde Morrison takes over the pharmacy on the square. His son Marion attends the Earlham Academy. The store fails in December 1911, and the family leaves for Des Moines. The boy becomes John Wayne.
- 1931
Earlham Savings Bank opens on New Year's Day, in the Depression, as the only bank serving Madison County. It is still on the street.
- 2026
On the sixth of September, The Vault opens its doors on the square. One room, kept for the people who work in it.
A boom, a mansion, and a crash — and the man behind our town is at the center of all three. The bank did not last. What he built to hold things did. We do not claim the history. We keep it.
The room is kept by Jori Hale. Hockett settled the ground and Allen bought it. She keeps what is made in it.